New Horizons revealed Pluto as a mysterious world, with icy mountains and very smooth plains.
Three years ago, when the New Horizons spacecraft sped toward Pluto on July 4th and began sending humans their first clear images of the tiny world at the end of the Solar System, it all seemed preordained.
Of course NASA would fund and build a spacecraft to complete its initial survey of the Solar System and visit the only “planet” found by an American. (For the purposes of this article, we will set aside the debate over Pluto's planethood.) But as ever in spaceflight, the end result almost...Read more ...